Browsing by Author "Sloan, Henry"
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item The Effectiveness of Adaptation Methods in Improving User Engagement and Privacy Protection on Social Network Sites(Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies, 2021) Namara, Moses; Sloan, Henry; Knijnenburg, Bart P.Research finds that the users of Social Networking Sites (SNSs) often fail to comprehensively engage with the plethora of available privacy features— arguably due to their sheer number and the fact that they are often hidden from sight. As different users are likely interested in engaging with different subsets of privacy features, an SNS could improve privacy management practices by adapting its interface in a way that proactively assists, guides, or prompts users to engage with the subset of privacy features they are most likely to benefit from. Whereas recent work presents algorithmic implementations of such privacy adaptation methods, this study investigates the optimal user interface mechanism to present such adaptations. In particular, we tested three proposed “adaptation methods” (automation, suggestions, highlights) in an online betweensubjects user experiment in which 406 participants used a carefully controlled SNS prototype. We systematically evaluate the effect of these adaptation methods on participants’ engagement with the privacy features, their tendency to set stricter settings (protection), and their subjective evaluation of the assigned adaptation method. We find that the automation of privacy features afforded users the most privacy protection, while giving privacy suggestions caused the highest level of engagement with the features and the highest subjective ratings (as long as awkward suggestions are avoided). We discuss the practical implications of these findings in the effectiveness of adaptations improving user awareness of, and engagement with, privacy features on social media.Item The Potential for User-Tailored Privacy on Facebook(IEEE, 2018) Namara, Moses; Sloan, Henry; Jaiswal, Priyanka; Knijnenburg, Bart P.Research shows that Facebook users differ extensively in their use of various privacy features, and that they generally find it difficult to translate their desired privacy preferences into concrete interface actions. Our work explores the use of User-Tailored Privacy (UTP) to adapt Facebook’s privacy features to the user’s personal preferences. We developed adaptive versions of 19 Facebook privacy features, and for each feature we test three adaptation methods (Automation, Highlight and Suggestion) that can be used to implement the adaptive behavior. In a “think-aloud” semistructured interview study (N=18), we show participants paper prototypes of our adaptive privacy features and ask participants to judge the presented adaptive capabilities and the three adaptation methods that implement them. Our findings provide insights into the viability of User-Tailored Privacy. Specifically, we find that the optimal adaptation method depends on the users’ familiarity with the privacy feature and how they use them, and their judgment of the awkwardness and irreversibility of the implemented privacy functionality. We conclude with design recommendations for the implementation of User-Tailored Privacy on Facebook and other social network platforms.